The journal Nature, in its current issue, is reporting on another breakthrough, this one from Germany, indicating that stem cells taken from living, breathing human beings are effective in growing replacement tissues. This particular study highlights the utility of testicular cells, which would be most effective in men. Still, the study’s author notes that the best news about the study “is that there is no ethical problem with these cells and that they are natural.”

Stem cells are best thought of as re-programmable building blocks of the body; they can be coaxed into becoming one of many different types of cells. This field of scientific research has enormous potential for treating diabetes, Parkinson’s and other chronic conditions. Whether or not you believe the government should finance this type of research, you’ll find very little disagreement among serious people that it should be encouraged. Just about the only type of stem-cell research that hasn’t proven fruitful, in fact, is the type liberals and the death industry seem most gung-ho about: human embryonic stem-cell research, which requires the morally impermissible destruction of nascent human life.